Heroes of Olympus: Searching For The Sunlight
by Mariamwrites
Summary: (MoA spoilers:) AU: Percabeth aren't trapped in Tartarus! The world of Olympians/demigods is about to be turned upside down… With Gaia ready to rise and wreak havoc, threatening to steal the daylight and force the world into darkness and evil, Percy Jackson and his friends have a new quest: To find the sunlight, banish the evil back to Tartarus, and help out new demigods on the way
1. Olympians in Discontent

**This is my first ever fanfiction, a gift for my little sister, and a lot of effort has been put in to make sure all the details of any Greek mythology are accurate at root. Obviously, I'll mess around with certain things to fit the storyline, but the basics are absolutely accurate (I hope!). Relationships will be toyed with, OCs added, the group dynamic messed around... I'm having a lot of fun with this. Reviews are most definitely welcome! :) -Mariampjo**

* * *

In the dying light of the day, the council of the Olympians took on a more sinister approach. Where the summer of a few years ago had once left the room full of memories, both sad and happy, and most definitely vivid, now it lacked the light that had grown from the defeat of the Titans. The same light that had once painted smiles on the faces of all those sat on their thrones now seeped away, leaving them sitting defeated, again, by something that had not truly began.

"Zeus-," Hera began, to which the rest of the Gods turned to silence her, speaking only with their faces.

The quiet of the throne room was uncomfortable, smothering, as Hera's husband stood at the window, gazing down at New York, and then back up the sky as though he was waiting for something.

And in fact, he was. Apollo's seat stood empty amongst the rest, and though it was early morning, the time in which he would be riding his chariot across the sky, bringing the morning to the mortals, the sky looked to be arguing with itself, stuck in the middle of a dark grey and a very pale blue; something which two of the Olympians noted with graveness.

Poseidon and Athena, notable enemies, glanced at each other as though they shared a thought. Their children, known to be more than just good friends, looked to be reflected in the sky. The blue of Percy Jackson, the grey of Annabeth Chase's eyes- it covered the sky, just for a moment, before the sun rose again, a hushed sigh of happiness exhaling along the room.  
"Well," Dionysus, the god of winery, rose to his feet, and stretched out his arms lazily, "It looks like we were worrying about nothing. Everything's fine. Can I go now?"

Zeus turned on his feet with a stare that broke Dionysus's confidence, watching him stagger back down to his seat.  
"Something is not right. Still." He mused, to which the Olympians groaned in annoyance.  
"Brother," Poseidon began, "Surely if something was in difficulty with the light, the morning would not come? And it looks to have done, there is nothing wrong here."  
"You are wrong." Zeus retorted, to which a smatter of lightening painted the sky in golden, wavery, licks. "We are waiting for Apollo before you are all dismissed."

"Good luck with that," Artemis sighed, playing with her bow in boredom. Twin of the Sun God, the pair were known to argue with one another, and looking across the throne room now, she saw her, for better word, family agree with her, rolling their eyes at Zeus's stubbornness.  
Her _true _family lay with her Hunters, a group of teenage girls preserving their independence and the nature of the natural world when the rest of the demigods lounged at Camp Half-blood waiting for a moment to usurp one another and win the approval of their parent. She did not want to think about Camp Jupiter. The Roman world of mythology baffled her, almost changed her entire existence.

But demigods… It was all so pathetic to her, all a battle of rivalry which was rooted in fickleness and greed. Which was why she would never have a child who grew up with such a twisted ideology. Not that all of them were like that, she mused. Looking at Poseidon and Athena, she knew some demigods weren't so terrible. Not even Hades' spawn was that bad. Or Zeus's. Or Aphrodite's. Or Hephaestus'…

Just _some _demigods. If there was anything she hated, it was boisterous children. And exploitative, poisonous men, constructing their patriarchal society. But that was an entirely different matter.

A blast of light roused her from her thoughts, and from the sleep that had overtaken Dionysus, Hades, and Hephaestus. Artemis tried not to grimace at Aphrodite's loathing look to her husband, and seated herself upright, feeling the flames of Hestia's hearth bathe the throne room in a more comfortable light, now.

"Yeah, I did my job,  
but it's not all happy news-  
I'm still awesome though."

Apollo sauntered towards his seat to find he had been pulled back by Zeus.  
"Explain." The god instructed, to which Apollo gulped, swallowing not only his spit, but his confidence. Artemis had to fight to conceal her amusement.

"Well, it was pretty hard to drive the sun around this morning. So you were right to be suspicious." He sighed, running a hand through his hair. For a moment, the youthfulness of his eyes disappeared.

"It felt like I was fighting with something. Like there wasn't enough light here anymore, like there wouldn't be for some time now. And… I think it's happening again."  
"We can get it back, though. Just send some demigods to do it, they love that stuff. Phil Jensen and Annie Charles, whatever," Dionysus chugged on a can of Diet Coke in boredom, ignoring the hostility of Athena's gaze.  
"Annabeth Chase," She corrected, looking at him with disgust, "And she has done enough for us."  
"So has Percy Jackson." Poseidon muttered, the throne room filling with the hush of conversation, again.

"Not enough." Zeus said, beckoning with his hand for Apollo to continue.  
"It looks worse though, than last time. The herb of Gigantes, you guys remember that?"

"We are not fools, brother," Artemis swung her bow back onto her shoulder, readying herself to go back to her Hunters. If this was the herb again, they'd be able to get it back.

"Let me finish, _sister,"_ Apollo remarked, with a cat-like grin growing on his lips. "This is that story. History repeating itself. With something more."

The gods stopped their conversations, their preparations to leave, and stared at him.

"Something… more?" Hephaestus looked uncomfortable, running his hands through the curls of his beard in a detached way that was symbolic of his anxiety. Sparks flared between his fingers, but he barely noticed.

"The fire of Prometheus." Apollo stated.

"Yes, another story that has already passed. Why are you regaling us with this trife?!" Hera stood to face him, to which Apollo chuckled, his insecurity at facing the queen of the Olympians carefully masked by his playfulness.  
"Because these two things have combined. The rise of Gaia, the rise of the Giants, it's all happening too quickly for the Gods. We risk living in darkness, living without a light that will just breed hostility and the giants to awaken and rifts to occur. And the eventual collapse of us, again, can't forget that bit!"  
"Make sense, Apollo, you speak too much." Athena raised her eyebrows in her surveying of him.

"Okay," He said, sighing, " Prometheus wants to steal the fire from heaven for man again. That fire is what gives us warmth first. Then, it gave warmth to the mortals. I understand Zeus was more than just annoyed at Prometheus for doing that, but he didn't give it all. He hid some of the flame inside a fennel stalk, and as we all know, Zeus had him chained to a mountain and set an eagle to peck his liver. Simple, right? We had Demeter, nice lady," He commented, hoping to not offend her, "Search the fennel to find it. But we all know some of it got left behind. So the day comes and goes, but it's never the same as the way we once saw it. But the mortals don't know that, they never saw it in its original state. Neither did the demigods.

Now multiply that with the fact that the Giants, sons of Gaia that we once tried to destroy 'cause they hate us and wanted to kill us, too, still have their ma trying to find the magic herb to grant them immortality that Zeus found before her and forbade the Sun, Moon and Dawn to shine when he did. And he hasn't told you guys that the herb is missing again. And so is the fennel plant."

"Not all of it." Demeter said, "I have kept some, knowing that it's blessed with some of the magic of the day."

"And it got stolen, too." Hades broke his private vow of silence to which all heads turned to face him. "Foolish of you, Demeter."

"Be quiet," She snapped, "I will have my children go search for it!"

Hades glowered, the pair of them ready to launch at one another when Athena spoke, wisdom growing in her words.

"So to conclude, we are to live in the dark for a bit….

"Starting tomorrow, somebody's gotta go tell the demigods their new quest today," Apollo offered up, interrupting her.

"… until the plants are returned to us. Risking the fact that Giants might find it before us, and become immortal. Why does Prometheus want the fire?"

"They're in cahoots," Dionysus laughed quietly to himself, "Obviously. Steal the plants, help the Giants become immortal, they'll help their mama and wreak havoc on our world. And terminate our existence, of course."

"Sounds fun." Hades said, absently playing with a jet of blue fire on his finger. "What do we do now?"

Zeus exhaled loudly, pressing his fingers to his temple as though the thought pained him.

"We let the demigods know."


	2. An Unexpected Visitor

**An Unexpected Visitor**

Somewhere in the sky, far away from the Council of the Olympians, a ship by the name of the Argo II soared along its charted course, steering clear of the stars in the sky that held, not only a flicker kind of light, but the faces of loved ones only some would be able to distinguish as anything other than ordinary. And on this ship lay others who would not feel comfortable calling themselves ordinary, either. Demigods of Greek and Roman descent existed in the cool of the air that surrounded them, each of them busy in some task or the other, and one of them laying in a fitful, restless sleep.

Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, slept deeply, happily, dead to the unpredictability of his life just for a few moments before the threat of dreams began to pursue him. But for now, he dreamed simply of nothingness, all the memories that had been stolen from him, returned to him, aided him through all the quests he'd been on, locked far into a corner of his mind. The nothingness of sleep held him in happiness; He and his friends had been successful, had taken home the Athena Parthenon, had managed to send Iris messages, both to Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter, detailing the conclusion of a manic saga, if only for a little while. So of course, he was allowed to sleep for a little while… Well, at least, until the morning came for him.

Or not.

"_Percy!"_

The shout disorientated the sleeping boy.

"… Huh?" Came the grumbled reply, Percy stretching to shake off the sleep from his body. He opened his eyes to find his friends stood in front of him, each of them in their pyjamas. Annabeth, Hazel, Leo, Piper, Jason, Nico, Frank, and their guardian figure, Coach Gleeson Hedge, each seemed to share an expression Percy couldn't quite make out.

"Sorry, man," A wiry, Hispanic boy started, "We just had to wake you up. It's kind of an emergency!" The boy spoke loudly, making Percy feel as though he was underwater… Which was silly, because he never heard things strangely when he was underwater (Being son of the Sea God, and all). It just felt like it did, today.

"You don't have to shout, Leo, I'm sat right here."

Annabeth sighed, and moved forward so that she was in full view of Percy. He smiled almost automatically at her, standing in her pyjamas with the usual look of indignation on her face.  
"He woke us all like this. But there's something you need to know."

She brushed a curl of blond away from her face, and pulled him up from his sleepy state. If it was anyone else, Percy would have carefully pushed them away. But this being Annabeth and all, he fell in step with her, and with his friends, walking to the study of the Argo II to discuss things.

Man, there was something nice about that. _Walking together. _The memories inside of his head played out the scenes he had once considered impossible to change: Camp against camp, rivalry running between the demigods, stopping them from ever getting along. But now… Now, he felt like this was a family. A unified front. He _knew_ these people, though sometimes _too_ well.

And this was one of those times. Percy knew his friends, right down to the way they walked. Which is why he could sense someone else here… Someone disrupting the way the atmosphere was flowing. Or rather, wasn't. But he held his tongue until he found himself in the study.

Percy's thoughts tailed off as he saw movement in between his crowd of friends that was not particular to them. He looked at their faces in turn, Annabeth's impatience, Leo's amusement, Jason's cautiousness, Piper's distraction, Frank's bemusement, Hazel's… Hazel's what? She looked like she had a thousand things to say and no words to say them. Nico looked the same way. And so did that girl that had moved so suddenly.

That girl. What girl?!  
"Who is this?" Percy asked, to which the girl flinched.

"That's what we were going to discuss, seaweed brain, " Annabeth sighed, taking a hold of this mystery girl's hand to pull her forward, though not unkindly. The girl pulled back slightly, but obeyed as Nico and Hazel smiled reassuringly. She looked like she'd spent all her time in the shadows, not yet ready to face the light yet.

"We found her when we were travelling by shadow," Hazel started, occasionally glancing at the girl the entire time she talked, "She… was just walking with them. Walking with the shadows. And me and Nico… Well, we figured that's impossible, we use those shadows to travel with!"

"Shadows aren't things you can walk with though," Annabeth said. Percy could swear he could see all the mechanisms in her brain whirring at the same time, bringing up information she'd read in books he always got confused at. Dating a daughter of Athena was a bit overwhelming at times.  
"They're not living entities."  
"Unless you bewitch them," Nico intervened, talking both in reply to Annabeth's words, and to the group that was in front of him.  
"All things can be bewitched. I'm thinking someone did something to the shadows."  
"Is that possible?" Jason asked, worry showing in his deep blue eyes. There was always a little bit of worry in him, but something nervous, and uncommon to his character, twitched in his words

Nico nodded grimly, the deep bruises of lack of sleep under his eyes shining in the dim light.  
"But anyway, we'll worry about that later. If it's anything to be worried about. We figured we'd bring the girl walking with the shadows here." Nico concluded, "I mean, you always know what to do, Percy. Not to burden you, or anything," He added hastily.

"Too late," Annabeth said quickly, then bit her lip, and direceted her words to the girl herself, in haste, "Not to say you're a burden, or anything!"

"It's okay," The girl started, "I just want some answers. It feels like… Like I've been living in the dark. And I know Nico and Hazel are right. There's something weird here. You can't live in shadows. In the dark."

There was a lingering silence that grew steadily uncomfortable. Coach Hedge, silent all this time, coughed nervously. It wasn't like him at all. Percy watched as the old goat looked at Leo as if prompting him to say something. Which he did. Leo, the old crowd-pleaser.

"Woah woah woah, "The boy interrupted, holding his hands out as if he was breaking up a fight. "We gotta start with the basics, what's your name, kid?"

"Rabiah." The girl said, "But my name's the only thing I know." She spoke so abruptly that the rest of her conversation seemed slow in comparison.

Jason shared a gaze with Percy that seemed to only read 'Hera/Juno-had-better-not-be-playing-with-us-again,-if-there's-another-Camp-we-gotta-unite,-we-are-so-dead.'

"You know about…. Gods, and stuff? Any camp in your memory that stands out? _Anything _in your memory that stands out?"

The girl blinked at his barrage of questions, to which Piper, his girlfriend, nudged him into silence. She spoke with ease, with a kind of calmness that made everyone else calm, obviously using her charmspeak, rephrasing his questions into a much soothing manner.

Rabiah shook her head, and Percy felt a surge of sadness for this girl. Hera had at least left him with the memory of Annabeth. This girl didn't know a thing.

"Wait," She called out, "I know about gods. I know about… Hades? I think…" She groaned in frustration at herself, "I think I was in the Underworld. I think… I think…"

Hazel put her hand on her shoulder reassuringly as Nico continued her sentence.  
"She thinks someone's trying to steal the light from the world."  
"It's been tried before," Annabeth said, "Mythology has two stories light. The fire of Prometheus, and the herb of the Gigantes."  
"Gigantes?" Frank stopped playing with the tassels on his pyjama bottoms to speak, "We gotta deal with giants again?"

Percy smiled at the boy. There was something so… comfortable about a kid who talked only when he genuinely had something to say. Frank Zhang, son of Mars, was one of the most reliable demigods Percy knew. Sat here, playing with his clothes, he felt a surge of admiration for him.

"We're not _dealing _with anything." Annabeth said, "We're dropping off Rabiah at Camp Half-blood. There's no way we're starting a new quest, no one is trying to steal the light from the world. I mean, it wouldn't be morning right now if that was true!"

As soon as she finished her words, a blast of light set the Argo II rattling to its side, Leo running for the controls in a second. In the wake of the explosion, stood a tall, handsome man, golden in a way that screamed 'GOD!' to Percy. The man tore his sunglasses off from his face as he ambled towards the group.

"Hey Percy, long time no see."  
"Apollo?!"  
"In the flesh. Lucky you."

The young god cleared his throat dramatically.  
"I'm sorry to say Wisdom's daughter's incorrect, today, folks! You kids are off on a new quest, and it's to…"

He stopped abruptly, as though his voice had disappeared. Percy watched as Apollo gazed at the group of demigods in turn, much as he had done moments ago, and just like Percy, Apollo stopped at Rabiah.

"You…" The effortless way in which Apollo talked had disappeared in the presence of this girl. And just like that, the god's face grew in anguish.

"Why is one of my kids _not _at Camp Half-Blood right now?! Or has never been?! Kid, why are you sending out some freakishly dark waves? Did you steal my chariot, BECAUSE I SWEAR I CANNOT FIND IT AND I USED IT JUST THIS MORNING, DIDN'T PARK ON ANY DOUBLE-LINES, AND NO KID OF MINE WILL BE A THIEF!"

His anger manifested itself into a wave of light that washed over the Argo II in a way the ocean or the sky never had done. Tension began, growing heavier and heavier as a collective gasp emitted from the mouths of Percy and his friends as Rabiah, Apollo's daughter, tried to stifle her surprise at being the daughter of the God of the sun …whilst having been trapped in the darkness, having a shadow that now Percy noticed, always followed her where the other demigods never had one, and had been cursed to live in the absence of light.


	3. Chatting With Apollo in The Air

**Chatting With Apollo in The Air**

"You're a… a daughter of Apollo?!"

Voices repeated the revelations of the night until the words themselves sounded old and weary. It was at that moment when Apollo raised his hands for silence, and clapped them together, sending the dark clean away. The tremor shook the ship for a while, everyone shielding their eyes. When they opened them, they found themselves floating… no longer in the study of the Argo II.

Yelps of surprise, Percy found they were seated on simply the air.  
"What the-?!" Leo screamed, batting his arms like some kind of oversized bird and almost hitting Hazel in the face.  
"Hey, watch it!" Frank said, before promptly turning into a bird.  
"Apollo, what's going on?!" Annabeth called aloud, always the voice of reason.  
"Calm down, you're sat on some of the few pieces of light that are still in the sky. I'm making a point."

"You couldn't do that from inside the ship?" Percy asked, pulling his legs under him to sit cross-legged on a flickery wave of yellow. He spotted Jason, holding Piper to his side with ease as she tried not to look down. Funny how everything about flying was weird when they weren't on the flying ship.

Still, being son of Jupiter had its perks; Jason looked right at home, Percy watching his friends follow Jason's example to simply sit than panic manically. Percy always felt a little nervous in the air, always terrified Zeus/Jupiter would send him tumbling to the earth. But watching Nico and Hazel, he knew he wasn't the only one. They looked like they were about to collapse. Funnily enough, so did Rabiah.

And what was even weirder, was the way Apollo looked at her. Like he was… afraid of her? Apollo's conduct with his kids was by far, one of the best of all the gods. But there was something weird about the way he regarded this girl.

Annabeth smiled at Percy, shaking him out of his thoughts, and he smiled back, glad to have her with him.  
"You gonna explain this stuff?" Coach Hedge was standing in the sky, not bothering to even try to sit down, and as everyone craned their necks to look him in the face, Percy shuddered at the sight they'd been left with. A full view of a satyr's butt is not the best thing to see.

Apollo simply smirked at this level of indignation, obviously amused.

"Well, sure."

And he regaled them with the story that had been previously told in the Council of the Olympians once before already. For a moment, the demigods, and satyr, so engrossed in the story, forgot they wasn't in the comfort of the Argo II anymore.

"But Prometheus _gave _fire to humans. Why does he want the fennel stalks containing the last few embers?"  
"Beats me, kid," Apollo shrugged, "Our world's a pretty mysterious place. But something's not right. And it's up to you guys to fix it."  
"_Us? Again?" _Leo sighed, "I don't want to sound like this, but c'mon, you guys, we always have to do this stuff. Why not let some other group of demigods do it?"  
"It does feel a little unfair," Hazel agreed, "There are plenty of demigods who are just _raring _for a challenge back at… well, all of our homes. But the prophecy, and everything. This is the way it has to be."  
"Couldn't have said it better," Apollo smiled at her, to which Hazel blushed. Percy was yet to meet a girl who _didn't _find Apollo ridiculously attractive. It explained why he had so many kids, anyway. Speaking of which… Rabiah sat uncomfortably in what was supposed to be her domain, not saying a word.

"You have 2 other demigods to help you, too," Apollo continued, signalling his daughter, and Nico, "A prophecy was revealed that involves them. But that's another story, you don't need to hear that yet-"  
"Uh, maybe we do?" Percy said, "Gods keeping things from us never ends well."  
"He's right," Jason agreed. Annabeth rolled her eyes to see the respective leaders of both camps showing the guidance that got them their reputation so openly. Still, it was better than them acting all competitive, as they liked to do.  
"No he's not," Apollo said, a slight harshness in his words, "Trust me. All you gotta worry about right now is this quest. Well, it can be split up into stages," He held up his fingers, counting them through, "One: Find the fennel stalks holding the light Prometheus stole. Once that goes, all the fire given to the mortals goes. They're intertwined. Two: If you find the stalks, the Herb of Gigantes, y'know, the one that grants immortality to the Giants, _can't _be found. 3. Find me my chariot. I need that thing."

Leo's tanned hand reached up tentatively in the open air, to which Apollo's cat-like smile appeared again, obviously amused at the son of Hephaestus.  
"Um, why can't the herb be found if we find the stalks?"  
"Because when Zeus first found the herb in the past, the sun, moon, and dawn were forbidden to rise so he could get it. Use your noggin, kid, the herb's in a dark place. Makes it easier to find. I _know _for a fact that Prometheus took those stalks. Your only option to bring back more than just the smidgens of light we're using to sit on today."  
"My butt better not be burnt when we're through with this," Coach grumbled, to which a smattering of laughter lifted the mood. The satyr looked around, bemused, wondering what all the laughter was about, unaware that he was the joke.

It was Hazel's voice which brought the 'meeting', it seemed to be the only word that even remotely fitted, back to seriousness.  
"Why would darkness make something hidden in the dark… easier to find?"  
Apollo chuckled, a low, happy sound, and Percy watched as Hazel, Piper, and Annabeth immediately smiled, almost like a reflex. He caught Annabeth's eye, raising an eyebrow with a smirk on his face. She made a face at him in return.

The sun god seemed to be mulling over Hazel's words, as though trying to find the right words to answer her. It was at this moment that Percy noticed the chinks in Apollo's armour: The faded hue of his blond hair, the circles under his eyes, the heaviness in limbs that had always seemed carefree and buoyant.

"Because when you're in the dark you get used to it. Your eyes see more than just the dark. You see what it holds."

But the voice that said these words was not Apollo's. His daughter, shoulders slumped forward awkwardly, in spite of her tall frame, found her words to be met with simply a curt nod from her father.  
"She's right."

The girl smiled tentatively, obviously hoping for something return from her dad, but he looked away, holding her gaze for only a moment before he turned to address the group, again.

"The only thing I have left to tell you is your starting point. Then, you're on your own. Well. As alone as you can be with a group this big. Prometheus was chained to Mount Caucasus, in Russia, before Hercules helped him out."  
"I thought Prometheus is still chained there?" Piper asked, before blushing furiously. Percy saw the reason behind her lack of speech- She was crushing hard on this guy, and didn't want to show it.

"No, Hercules helped him to get free. Then Prometheus upset Zeus a few more times. But he never fought with the Titans, so we all thought he was a good guy. Then this stuff happened. Anyway. Mount Caucasus. Russia. You got a flying ship, make your way there."  
Apollo stood up, and everyone followed suit, trying to get their legs to stand on the shards of light left in the sky as easily as he did. So it only made sense that Leo and Frank fell flat on their faces, the rest of the group trying to stifle their laughter, and then, remembering their new quest, growing solemn.

"Good luck, kids!" Apollo yelled, slamming his hands together at the precise moment that everyone shielded their eyes from the bright light intensifying from his exit, the young demigods, and their satyr, crashing onto the hull of the Argo II in mere seconds.


	4. Strategies, Goats, and Dyslexic Demigods

**Strategies, Goats, and Reading with Dyslexic Demigods.**

Wooden decking never felt so comforting. Percy's body hit it hard, but the sway of water in clouds underneath the trireme was a welcoming motion. Standing up, Annabeth's lithe figure could already be seen, heading towards the study as the others followed. Percy stood, stared upward at the sky, and wondered if Zeus/Jupiter was watching them... Moving his little chess pieces- No, wait... Other gods's chess pieces into a game that hosted only two players, really: the Olympians, and fate. Fate never really did lose though, did it?

"So. We're all gonna almost die again," Leo muttered nonchalantly, picking himself up from his crash-landing to steer the ship again. For a moment, no one said a word, watching him put in the co-ordinates for Russia without any effort showing on his face. He barely looked at the keyboard as he did so.  
"Positive thinking, man," Percy said, "That's really what we all want to hear."

Leo shrugged his shoulders good-naturedly as the rest of the group took their seats around the large table that was used for pretty much every aspect of the travelling demigod life. Funny how they'd been set on getting home, having delivered the Athena Parthenon to Camp Jupiter. He wished hopelessly for a return to Camp Half-Blood.

Percy's mind drifted to the simple pleasures that greeted him every time he went back (aside all the monster killing and quests and stuff): singing around the camp fire, playing games of Capture The Flag, watching the fireworks on the Fourth of July with Annabeth and Grover and all his friends. It seemed like the gods liked to tempt him... Put something in front of him that seemed reachable, and then kept dragging it away like he was some kind of dog.

"So, Prometheus," Leo slammed his hands onto the circular desk of the study as though he was heading the meeting, "Anyone met him before?"  
Annabeth rolled her eyes as Frank sneered in Leo's direction, this in turn prompting the latter to stand up slightly, making fight-like gestures with his arms as though luring Frank in like the big Chinese-Canadian Roman descendant of Poseidon, but son of Mars, the much calmer version of Ares, he was. Frank was too smart for Leo's advances, anyway. He crossed his arms over his chest, and raised an eyebrow instead.  
"Yeah," Percy said, acting as a distraction to the Leo/Frank show, "He fought on Luk-Kronos's side in the second Olympian war."  
A murmur of discontent sounded amongst the listening crowd, Rabiah simply turning her head to wonder at the cause, and Coach grumbling loudly about impaling anyone who sided with the Titans and the such.  
"But he's fairly decent," Annabeth continued Percy's recount, "He's usually neutral in conflicts. He said he fought with Kronos to minimize the bloodshed. But we don't know if that's true. Maybe he just didn't want to go back to having his liver eaten by a vulture everyday."  
Leo gagged, clutching his stomach at Annabeth's words.  
"That... That's pretty disgusting," Piper muttered, watching her friend in his theatrics. He seemed to have stopped the clutching, and started pinching his stomach inside.  
"... What are you doing?"  
"Just trying to work out how that'd feel, beauty queen. Don't worry about it."  
"You won't have to in a minute," Frank muttered darkly, to which Hedge guffawed, disrupting his own eating of the spare pieces of paper littered around the study.  
"I like you, kid," The faun grinned, knocking Frank's shoulder with a balled fist.  
"Uh, thanks." Frank said, surprise clear in his voice.  
"That is totally," Leo bellowed, standing up to point accusingly at the pair, "favouritism! Favouritism right here, you guys! The faun loves the shapeshifter more than us, you guys!"  
"Oh, shut up, Valdez!" Annabeth groaned, "This is important stuff! Quit clowning around, or I swear I'll... I'll take your toolbelt off of you."  
Leo walked forward, facing Annabeth with fire in his burning brown eyes. Percy groaned, watching Leo make the biggest mistake you could ever make with his girlfriend: never think you can win an argument.  
"Don't. Test. Me. Boy," Annabeth muttered through gritted teeth, the storm in her grey eyes wildly drenching the fire in his. Leo took a seat quickly, refusing to meet her eyes after that.  
"Now can I get on with this?" Annabeth asked, hands on her hips triumphantly. The room was silent, except for Nico's hushed whispers to Rabiah, filling her in on the long, winding story of Prometheus in mythology and Kronos and the second Olympian war. Her eyes traced over the two of them, now much more gentler, but still firm, and the whispering faltered.  
"Rabiah was just saying to Nico right here," Hedge interjected, "that livers aren't in the stomach, like what Leo was doing. Boys a bigger idiot than we first thought." He chuckled to himself as the room suddenly got very still, Rabiah's face turning very red in a matter of moments, and then the faun's own words saved him:  
"You carry on with the story though. We all gotta know what's really happening, or Leo'll think Achilles's heels is in his armpit."  
"Uh, Annabeth?" Percy muttered quickly, seeing the invisible steam pouring out from her ears, "Prometheus. You were saying?"

Annabeth grumbled under her breath, and then tucked her blonde curls behind her ears, "Prometheus. Right. His involvement in the second Olympian war could have been part of a bigger sceheme, involving the future. He _is _the Titan of Forethought, and everything. He may have seen something that we missed…"

She tailed off, frowning as though a thought had come along and ambushed her, and Percy knew she was playing back the scenes of the war in the past in her head, covering her bases, wondering why Prometheus had acted as he had done.  
"Prometheus always picks the side he thinks will win," Percy blurted, picking up Annabeth's speech. It was only when he'd let the words come out of his mouth that he realised what he'd said.  
"Meaning _we _won't?" Hazel sighed heavily.  
"Titans are hard to figure out though," Nico said, watching his sister carefully, "We don't know what they're thinking, or why they act the way they do. Why did Prometheus give us fire in the first place? Why did he disobey Zeus so much?"  
"Not to forget to mention the fact that Forethought is always changing, 'cause the future's always changing. No one knows why Prometheus does what he does except the Fates and well, himself."

Annabeth finished Nico's train of thought, and the two nodded grimly at each other. For a split second, Percy wondered if Nico still had a crush on her, and whether there'd be any rivalry in that, but then he caught himself. Was annoyed at himself for even wondering about something so stupid. And anyway, Annabeth would never leave him. She told him that all the time. Well. That, and how much his head was full of kelp.  
"We can still change the future, then," Jason mused, sitting next to Piper, "The future's never certain, is it?"

He met Percy's gaze as he spoke, who then turned to Annabeth, who simply smiled wryly.  
"Nope. Nothing's ever certain."

But when Percy caught her eye again, he saw the fear she kept so easily concealed. It flickered in her eye, and he knew he was the only one who saw it. So much time spent together had done that to the pair of them. He could see it on her face, the ideas dancing around her mind, the everlasting certainty of scissors on pieces of thread being the only certain thing they had always known: death.

"Hermes said that if Prometheus knew what was good for him though, he'd keep away." Annabeth tried to smile encouragingly, hoping it would help her friends through.  
"Guessing he doesn't then," Frank grumbled, arms crossed over his chest, "If he's back."  
"All the better for us," Coach grinned maliciously, rubbing his hands together, "I'll send him right back to where he was hiding."  
"You and you alone, huh, Coach?" Leo grinned, smacking him on the back good-naturedly, "Titan vs Goat!"

Leo laughed aloud to himself as Piper rolled her eyes, and patted his back, talking soothingly to calm him down as he repeated himself like his words were the funniest thing in the world.  
"Oh, c'mon, you guys! It was funny! Titan vs Goat? Yeah? Yeah, guys?" He looked around to see Annabeth staring daggers into him, Percy throwing his hands up in exasperation, an awkward smile on Hazel's lips, Jason muttering apologetically, Nico not even bothering to pay attention, and Rabiah trying to stifle a laugh at Coach Hedge trying to jostle Frank into going 'two on one faun vs idiot demigod' style.  
"Show him a goat, Zhang, a real one so he stops calling me that, or I swear I'll mess up that little runt good!"

Frank looked to Annabeth, Percy, and Jason in succession at a loss for both words, and actions. Annabeth sighed, and then waved her hand carelessly.  
"Do it before he kills him." Hedge was already backing Leo into a corner, an easy smile on Leo's face, and a murderous one on the faun's.

Frank just shrugged, materialising as a goat just for a second before back into his burly self again, much to Rabiah's dismay.  
"How did you-" She asked incredulously, eyes wide in disbelief.  
"Secrets," Leo grinned, now free of Coach's hold, and apologetic to him, "We've got a lot of them."  
"I'll explain everything to you later," Annabeth started "We just have to go over the details of this quest properly now that _some _people aren't acting like children anymore."  
"… I'm 15." Leo muttered.  
"Hazel's 13. Plus a few more years, and _she _knows how to behave. Now shut up, Valdez."  
Hazel blushed under Annabeth's words, and then found herself explaining what 'a few more years' actually meant to Rabiah.  
"Don't ever go into a casino called The Lotus Hotel." Nico said darkly, by way of explanation.

"Okay," Percy said, "If we're lucky, Prometheus will be chained to his rock when we get to Russia. All we have to do is talk to him and try our hardest to reason with him."  
"So we'll need you, Piper," Jason stated, looking over at his girlfriend," Your charmspeak. It might be best if you do all the talking."  
"Yeah," Hazel nodded, and then turned to Rabiah to explain 'charmspeak', too. Percy had to smile to see someone getting such a crashcourse into 'Being a Demigod 101' but there was something about that girl and her lack of knowledge that was a bit weird, even for him. Not to forget to mention the fact that she was a daughter of Apollo… And probably the darkest daughter of Apollo he'd ever met.

Piper squirmed uncomfortably in her seat at the thought of talking to a Titan one-on-one, but knew she would do it despite her doubts. They'd _always _look out for each other… do what's right, and needed, in this gang.  
"What happens if Prometheus isn't there?"  
"Isn't chained to the rock that the gods have cursed him to always be at? I dion't think that'll be a problem, Pipes…" Leo said uncertainly.  
"You're an idiot," Hedge glowered at him, "Piper said 'what if.' She's thinking out of the box. Covering the bases."  
"It's a good point to make," Annabeth agreed, "I guess we'll have to look around. See what happens, and for clues, and work out where to go next. I have some books on mythology we can use, too. Might do you some good, Percy." She smiled, to which Percy rolled his eyes and feigned being grossly insulted at her.  
"Reading with dyslexic demigods." Jason mused, "Sounds… totally impossible."  
"Just a 'what if' situation solution," Percy said, "We don't know what'll happen next."  
"Not that I've never experienced _that _feeling before," Jason laughed.  
"Tell me about it!"  
"All flirting aside," Annabeth smirked at Percy's expression of argument at her words fading to an annoyed smile, "We're in this, now. We've got to find those fennel stalks before the fire given to us goes forever."  
"A world in darkness." Piper said, silence following her words. It really was terrifying to think about.  
"Did Apollo tell us _when _it'll go?" Frank asked, "Only I can't seem to remember if he did…"  
"The 29th." Rabiah said, before clearing her throat and repeating herself," The 29th is when it'll go."

Catching the bemused faces of those around her, she simply shrugged. "I can feel it."  
"Well you _are _his daughter," Leo said, smiling at her encouragingly.  
"But it's the 24th today," Jason said, "Which gives us 5 days."  
"And how far are we from Russia, right now?" Annabeth asked Leo, who promptly ran to the controls of the Argo II to find out.  
"8 hours to go!" He called back as he sat to enter in some further details.  
"We'll be there by tomorrow morning."  
Annabeth groaned in annoyance.  
"So. 4 days for a quest," Percy said, "Terrific.

* * *  
With the details of their next step in motion, there was nothing the crew of the Argo II could do but kill time, waiting for a glimpse of Russia and Mount Caucasus which would not be visible until the hours of the morning. The group had dismantled after hearing of their long wait, Hedge and Leo casting dark looks in each other's vague directions all the while, despite their making-up. Leo had declared himself bored after a few minutes of this, and had gone to his room to tinker with some things he said were 'deadly secret' and 'not for goat ears.' Piper and Jason sat talking together in a corner, and Frank, Hazel, and Nico tried earnestly to explain all the things they took for granted in their demigod-ly lives to an unsuspecting, curious Rabiah.

Annabeth had picked up a book about Prometheus from her room, stolen from Chiron's quarters back at Camp Half-Blood no doubt, and tried to find any sort of clues, but had given up after a while of discovering far too much and exhausting her hand from the notes she'd been taking. Not to mention the fact that Percy had been reading, annoyingly, over her shoulder, before the words began to dance along the page to his dyslexic mind, as they always did.

He didn't know how Annabeth could stand it… Which is why he breathed a sigh of relief when she slammed the book closed, making him jump.

All he wanted to do was spend some time with her. But he knew reading together was not his favourite way to do this.  
"We just don't have much detail. And too much at the same time," She said sadly, opening the book again to underline things she thought to be of importance. Of all the time Percy had known her, he knew books never stayed shut for too long with Annabeth.  
"Oh gods, this makes me feel _so _helpless."  
"Annabeth, we'll do this, okay? Together. Stop worrying," Percy smiled at her, nudging her sneakered foot with his own as she sat cross-legged next to him.  
"I don't know _how _you're staying so positive," She sighed, "We have 4 days to find those fennel stalks. 4 days."  
"And a genius, faun, charmspeak-er, crackpot annoying inventor, son of Hades (on _our _side), ridiculously awesome shape-shifter, Roman natural born leader, a pretty awesome daughter of Pluto, _and _a daughter of Apollo with us."  
"And a seaweed brain."  
"And a seaweed brain. I mean, you have to admit. We're impressive."  
Annabeth smiled wistfully at his words.  
"Let's hope that'll be enough."  
"It will be. It's not like we haven't been doing this since we were 12, right? Calm yourself!"  
"Well I wouldn't be so stressed if you guys stopped acting like you were still that age!"  
"What age?"  
"… I give up."  
"No you don't. You'd never give up. On anything." Percy cocked his head to his side as he smiled at her, earning yet another smack on the arm from his girlfriend.

"…Turn into anything you want?"  
"Pretty much, yes. Well it has to exist. But… yeah."

The two demigods turned their smiling faces to the conversation taking place around them, their friends trying to explain various things to Rabiah as she sat trying to understand. The day had come and gone around them as they sat on the floor together, Leo now sat in their circle, back from his room.

If a stranger looked in, they would not have guessed the true purpose behind their assembly.  
"... And Piper pretty much can get anyone to do whatever she wants without them even realising-"  
"Just for a little while, Leo, then they wonder why they're giving me things."  
"Still, it's pretty cool, huh? And Annabeth's a genius child of Athena and literally the smartest person I know, and Percy's son of Poseidon and pretty much awesome, and Hazel and Nico are brother and sister and they're children of Hades-slash-Pluto 'cause of all the Greek 'n' Roman stuff, and Jason's pretty handy with flying and the sky and stuff, being son of Zeus-slash-Jupiter who's basically like the daddy of everything-"  
"Daddy, Leo?" Annabeth smirked, crossing her arms over her chest as she studied him.  
"It fits the image! I'm educating Rabiah, it doesn't matter. C'mon, it suits the big guy!"  
"Well alright," Percy grinned, "But careful what you say, man. You don't want to insult the guy when we're up here in his territory."  
"People get struck by lightning all the time..." Jason tailed off, Leo cautiously looking up at the sky at his words.  
"If only." Came Hedge's words, making everyone laugh.

The time they spent in solidifying Rabiah's understanding of her new life as a demigod was one that seemed bittersweet. Percy watched his friends regale each other with stories from both books and experience, from Greek mythology to Roman, from amusing to not necessarily so.

But tomorrow was something which wouldn't leave him alone. He thought of all the quests that he'd been on, his friends and all they'd done for each other, and the mystery was was this daughter of Apollo. She sat and spoke in a way that seemed so unremarkable that he wondered just what was so special about her… Why _she _was followed by shadows, why she needed lessons in 'demigodliness' at all… And why had her dad treated her so terribly?  
"Alright!" Hedge yelled, clapping his hands together, "We have Russia in T-minus 6 hours! Sleep!"  
But when he saw movement amongst the crowd to retire to individual cabins (Rabiah was to sleep in Annabeth's cabin until Leo could figure out somewhere on the ship to place her), he put his hooves down.  
"I've been given strict orders-"  
"From Camp?" Percy asked, but found himself to be ignored.  
"-to keep you safe. All of you. Even more than normal. Which is why," Hedge displayed what looked like a dozen large, brown caught fish in his right hand, "We're sleeping out here tonight. On the deck."

At this, a low groan resounded as Hedge began giving out his brown fish. It wasn't until Percy had one in his hand that he realised it was a sleeping bag.  
"Is this really necessary?" Annabeth asked, holding hers out in distaste.  
"I," Hedge said, patting himself on the chest for emphasis, "Am here to protect you. To keep an eye on you. And I've had _special _instruction for this quest-"  
"Special?" Percy and Annabeth said in unison.  
"For this one?" Percy asked, "…why?"  
"Yeah, what's going on?"  
"Never you mind! Now get in your sacks and hit the hay! Not literally either, Jackson! I don't want to find you and Miss Chase in the stables together ever again! Now keep those sleeping bags away from each other!"

Give a faun a little responsibility and he went crazy with it, Percy mused, grumbling as he gragged his sleeping away into the 'boy' section of the deck that Hedge had gingerly split the ship into.  
Funny thing was, as soon as he was lying down, wooden panels under him, the stars up, his friends all around him, and the possibility of dying tomorrow just around the corner, that his complaints drifted out from under him.  
He craned his neck to see Annabeth doing the same thing. They locked eyes and Percy's stomach somersaulted at the grey storm smiling at him in them.  
"Go to bed!" Hedge barked as the night carried on in the background.  
"Why _brown _sleeping bags, though?" Percy heard Leo say," Why not orange… or purple? Camp colours? Brown reminds me of something… y'know… an end product… sometimes gooey and sometime hard if there's something wrong with you… but mostly gooey… Feels like I'm lying in a bed of-"  
"VALDEZ! SHUT UP!"  
"Coach, I'm right next to you- You don't have to shout. Inside voice-OW! You guys, Coach threw something at me!"  
"Leo, please be quiet. We're trying to sleep."  
"Well… Alright. Just for you, Annabeth Chase. Just for you."

Percy chuckled to himself, and found laughter echoing all around him: Annabeth's familiar tones, Frank's low ones, Hazel's muted ones, Jason's silent smile as he turned to the side, mirrored by Nico's albeit darker one, Piper's quiet giggles, and… Rabiah's chortles.

Percy sat up to see her, head bent low and shaking in laughter. The sight settled him, made him smile to see her enjoying herself, even just for a little while. And then he let himself flop back onto the hard floor of the Argo II in a momentary state of happiness, knowing tomorrow would be different, and that he'd wake up to the sound of someone yelling about their arrival in Russia.

And of course, he was correct. But first he had to make it through this night's steady stream of dreams.


End file.
